Adventure Gamers - Forums

Great to hear Simon! I’m most definitely looking forward to it ASA took me back to great days of taking pages and pages of notes and when finally figuring it out the confidence of solving through it on my own was a great joy!

Thank you very much Sir Beardalot. I really hope that you will enjoy Catyph as much and will have the opportunity to take so many notes and use them to solve the game on your own.

In case you missed it, this is the 3rd trailer of Catyph:
http://www.adventuregamers.com/videos/view/29261

It introduces 2 main characters, a small bit of gameplay, and a facultative minigame. Mingames will allow to gather Blue Matter points. These points can unlock tips in a special menu, in order to solve the puzzles more easily. Just see it as the easy mode. But of course, most of you won’t need this feature, right?

If you missed the news on the AG front page, Catyph is going well and will release in the beginning of May (currently planned on May 11th).
Steam, Windows, English and French (more versions later, if the sales allow it)

The Beta Test is started and is going well, and several people like the game so far.

Before the release, you still have the time to discover the Black Cube series:
- ASA (Remastered… or not!)
- Myha, free short game
- The Making Of Catyph, and other text documents
- Music from the games

Everything can be found here:
http://www.theblackcube.fr/released-projects.html
And more surprises will be added soon with Catyph!

At last! Initiated in the beginning of 2014, Catyph finally came to life and released… today. It is all thanks to the support of several people here. The ASA CPT did really encourage me, and your messages in this thread were also very important. There aren’t many places on internet where Myst games can receive exposure and support, so I am grateful to all of you.

For more information about the release, you can read this summary on the Icehouse Collective blog:
http://blog.theicehouse.fr/post/144193562901/oh-i-dont-belive-it-its-finally-released

I also hope that there will be reviews soon. The AG team has received the game and will certainly do their best.
I don’t know how this new game will be welcomed, but it has been much more work than ASA. I think that Catyph is more exotic and rich, and many beta testers were surprised. On another hand it might be (even) more difficult (and frustrating? I hope not!) but there is an integrated Help system in the Normal mode. So I expect all of you here to be able to reach the good end without the need of a walkthrough

If you have questions or need details about something, I’ll try to be around here this week.

Thanks Simon

Already downloading from Steam now and can’t wait to get started.

Congratulations on finally releasing the game Simon.

Catyph certainly looks like an interesting game, and I will probably pick it up as soon as I’ve finished what I’m currently playing. (Which reminds me that I really have to finish ASA on of these days)

Thanks everyone!

Yes, well that will probably be my last Myst-like game in slideshow “2D” anyway, exactly because it’s complicated to bring a good gameplay that would please everyone. Slideshow navigation was nice 20 years ago, but nowadays 360 views would be better, if not realtime 3D of course. At least that’s what most people are asking. I don’t know yet what will happen exactly now after Catyph, but I hope you’ll enjoy this game “as is”. The gameplay has been improved compared to ASA, thanks to the video transitions and more standard cameras, but I know it’s not perfect. You’ll have to make your own opinion or wait for others to share their thoughts!

Well, I didn’t want ASA and Catyph to be exactly like Myst. Catyph, more specifically, I see it as a game “on rails” with several predefined paths to follow. That is how the gameplay was build, and it is made to serve the exploration and puzzle-solving. I have of course no doubt that the gameplay of Myst is way better, it has been approved by so many fans! (I’m just trying to explain what I tried to do)

That being said, I have no doubt that the gameplay of Catyph is better than ASA, as the arrow icons on the hotspots are more logical:
- blue arrows: you stay exactly where you are currently standing, and turn your head left or right
- bottom circles: you stay exactly where you are and turn 180°
- red arrows: you walk to another place
- bottom red arrows: you walk back to the previous frame
- blue dots: actions

Even though these icons are visually the same than the ones in ASA Remastered, they were placed in a more logical way in Catyph. I hope it can help in the game, even if it might not feel “natural” yet or comfortable enough. I really worked hard on this.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and for your encouragements! That’s helpful for future projects.

Want to learn more about the past Beta Test of Catyph? 

Here’s how it happened for my friends Atelier Sentô:

No problem Oscar, I understand and it’s up to you to decide when to stop. I’m back to help if anyone needs some support or anything else.
I replied about this specific puzzle here:
http://www.adventuregamers.com/forums/viewthread/4570/P45/#113787